GUN SALES SKYROCKET AS THREATS OF ELECTION VIOLENCE MOUNT

WASHINGTON - One of the nation's largest gun manufacturers, Sturm, Ruger, announced a sharp rise in gun sales today as election day nears and threats of violence mount. Today the company reported an earnings increase of 66 percent over the same quarter last year. Sturm, Ruger's soon-to-be CEO attributed the sales boost to the election and said sales are up across the entire gun industry.

The new figures come as calls for and threats of violence from influential politicians and voices, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, are on the rise. Just Monday, news broke of sitting U.S. Senator Richard Burr's disappointment that a rifle periodical adorned with Hillary Clinton's face was not marked with a bullseye for readers.

Just hours before Burr's comments became public, the Brady Campaign launched a petition demanding Donald Trump and the RNC renounce similar threats of violence and disavow those like Richard Burr who spew hateful, brutal rhetoric.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign, said, "What's most troubling is this correlation between soaring gun sales and an increasingly turbulent and violent political atmosphere. Americans are literally arming up for the election - at the direction of some very powerful influencers. An industry CEO himself attributes the rising sales to the presidential campaign, one in which calls to arms and encouraged violence have now become disturbingly commonplace from Donald Trump's camp. It's shameful, and they're either blind to the real world consequences of their words or they simply don't care. It's that simple.

"The violent rhetoric isn't just words. Shooting someone in the middle of fifth avenue. Shooting Hillary Clinton in a firing line. 'Bloodshed' to take the presidency from a lawfully elected candidate. 'This is war.' These threats, straight from the mouths of either Donald Trump or his most influential supporters, endanger lives and threaten our entire democratic system.

"Every day Donald Trump and the RNC let these threats slide, they're increasingly complicit in any violence that results. The GOP presidential candidate and the party he represents must immediately renounce violent rhetoric and disavow its arbiters while they still can.

"Nearly ten years ago my own brother was actually shot on fifth avenue in New York. It's never just words."

The mission of the Brady organization and its Million Mom March is to create a safer America by cutting gun deaths in half by 2025. For more insight on gun violence prevention, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @BradyBuzz.

About Us: The Brady Campaign and Center, united with the Million Mom March, is a national network of over 90 grassroots chapter affiliates mobilized to prevent gun violence at the community level. The network has played a vital role in expanding Brady background checks in the six states that have passed legislation since the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut and produced the largest national protest of gun violence in U.S. history - The Million Mom March, Mother's Day 2000.